In Michigan, It's Right To Work Vs. Right To Pork

Private-sector employee compensation in RTW states grew by an inflation-adjusted 12.5% between 2001-11, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares with just 3.1% over the same period in states where workers can be forced to join a union as a condition of getting a job.

Taking a somewhat opposite view of what Michigan and its largest city of Detroit need is City Council member JoAnn Watson. Last Tuesday she said there "ought to be a quid pro quo" for Wayne County, which includes Detroit and voted 75% for President Obama on Nov. 6.

"After the election of Jimmy Carter, the Honorable Coleman Alexander Young (Detroit's mayor for 20 years), went to Washington, D.C., and came home with some bacon," Watson said. "That's what you do."

Except cities like Detroit are poster children for the failure of Democratic socialism and progressivism, providing empirical evidence that forced unionism and a sense of entitlement breed a dependence on government that leads to Third World status. There is an elementary reason, Ms. Watson, why Detroit lost 25% of its population, or 237,000 people, over the last decade.

Michigan is right to choose the promise of an opportunity society over the failure of the ant farm of liberal progressivism.

Right To Work: Both chambers of the Michigan legislature pass bills banning union dues as a condition of employment as a Detroit city councilwoman wonders when the pork will arrive. The choice is growth vs. stagnation.

Reports of the GOP's demise may be greatly exaggerated, at least at the state level, as Michigan, birthplace of the modern labor movement and unionism, stands poised to become the nation's 24th right-to-work (RTW) state. If it goes ahead, it will join recent addition Indiana in challenging union power as Gov. Scott Walker successfully did in Wisconsin.

The senate quickly followed by voting to impose the same requirement on most public unions. Because of rules requiring a five-day delay between votes in the two chambers on the same legislation, final enactment could not take place until Tuesday at the earliest.

As in Wisconsin, news of the latest challenge to union power met with throngs descending on the state capitol in Lansing. Hell hath no fury like union leaders threatened with a cutoff of union dues needed to fund the political campaigns of their benefactors.

The benefits of RTW laws and the need of Michigan to become an RTW state is self-evident. In an interview with the Associated Press, Snyder, governor of a state with a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 9.3%, said one reason for his support of the RTW legislation was reports that some 90 companies have decided to locate next door in Indiana since that state adopted right-to-work legislation.

"That's thousands of jobs, and we want to have that kind of success in Michigan," he said.

From 2001 to 2011, 22 states had right-to-work laws on the books, prohibiting forced union dues. Indiana became the 23rd early this year. According to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, all of the top five, and 10 of the top 12, states for 2001-11 private-employment growth are RTW states. The bottom 10 for employment growth all lacked RTW statutes at the time.

Nationwide, private-sector payroll jobs declined by 1.45 million, or 1.3%, from 2001 to 2011, due in large part to the weakest recovery since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, aggregate private payroll employment in RTW states has weathered the storm relatively well, and actually grew by 2.4%. Private payrolls in forced-unionism states dropped by an average of 3.4%.

Private-sector employee compensation in RTW states grew by an inflation-adjusted 12.5% between 2001-11, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares with just 3.1% over the same period in states where workers can be forced to join a union as a condition of getting a job.

Taking a somewhat opposite view of what Michigan and its largest city of Detroit need is City Council member JoAnn Watson. Last Tuesday she said there "ought to be a quid pro quo" for Wayne County, which includes Detroit and voted 75% for President Obama on Nov. 6.

"After the election of Jimmy Carter, the Honorable Coleman Alexander Young (Detroit's mayor for 20 years), went to Washington, D.C., and came home with some bacon," Watson said. "That's what you do."

Except cities like Detroit are poster children for the failure of Democratic socialism and progressivism, providing empirical evidence that forced unionism and a sense of entitlement breed a dependence on government that leads to Third World status. There is an elementary reason, Ms. Watson, why Detroit lost 25% of its population, or 237,000 people, over the last decade.

Michigan is right to choose the promise of an opportunity society over the failure of the ant farm of liberal progressivism.

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